Russian state media outlets are sounding the alarm in the overnight hours, alleging that Ukrainian forces are preparing to strike the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) in Enerhodar, Ukraine, and the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) in Russia with radioactive warheads, all in an attempt to create a false flag and blame Moscow. Conversely, the Kyiv Independent quickly brushed off these claims as totally baseless. The situation unfolding in Eastern Europe underlines the growing uncertainty and chaos, thickening the ‘fog of war’ as tensions escalate. 

Concerns over a ‘nuclear catastrophe’ have soared in the last week after Russia and Ukraine traded blame for a drone strike on ZNPP that sparked a fire in the nuclear power plant’s cooling tower. The Russia-Ukraine conflict is entering a new phase, with Ukraine invading Russian territory for the first time.

Now, several Russian state-controlled media outlets, including Russia Today, citing ‘intelligence received by Russia,’ warned on Friday night that “Ukrainian forces have begun preparations to target nuclear waste storage sites at a Russian power plant with radioactive warheads and to then blame Moscow.” 

A Russian State media outlet, citing Russian law enforcement officials, reports that Ukrainian Armed Forces are planning to detonate a dirty nuclear bomb and the potential targets are storage sites at power plants. pic.twitter.com/1AGHGedAv6

— RT (@RT_com) August 16, 2024

Here are snippets from RT’s report about Ukraine possibly preparing for a ‘dirty nuke’ attack on nuclear power plants. 

“Sources on the other side report that the [Ukrainians] are preparing a nuclear false flag – an explosion of a dirty atomic bomb,” military journalist Marat Khairullin said Friday on his Telegram channel. “They plan to strike the storage sites of spent nuclear fuel of a nuclear power plant.”

The special warheads intended for the attack have already been delivered to the Vostochny Mining and Processing plant in Zhovti Vody, in Ukraine’s Dnepropetrovsk Region, according to Khairullin.

As possible targets of the attack, Khairullin indicated either the Zaporozhye NPP in Energodar or the Kursk NPP in Kurchatov, noting that the Ukrainian government and its Western backers are “desperate and willing to try anything.”

A security official in the Russian Military Administration of Kharkov Region corroborated Khairullin’s claim to RIA Novosti on Friday. The attack is intended to use radioactive warheads to target spent fuel storage sites at a nuclear power plant, and the ammunition has already been delivered to Zhovti Vody.

Kiev’s intention is to accuse Moscow of a false flag so it could justify using nuclear weapons against Ukraine, the security official said. The Ukrainian government has received orders from its Western backers to “escalate as much as possible,” he added.

In a separate report, RT cited comments from the Defense Ministry in Moscow that warned swift countermeasures will be taken if Kiev goes through with planned attacks on nuclear power plants:

“If the Kiev regime begins to realize its criminal plans aimed at creating a man-made disaster in the European part of the continent that would infer the radioactive contamination of vast territories, tough military and military-technical countermeasures will be taken immediately”.

On the other hand, the Kyiv Independent has quickly rejected Russia’s claims about planned dirty bomb attacks on nuclear power plants. 

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi called the claims “a surge of insane Russian propaganda,” adding, “We officially refute these false reports. Ukraine has neither the intention nor the ability to carry out any such actions. Russia must stop spreading dangerous lies.” 

On X, a user who goes by the name “James Porrazzo” listed dozens of headlines showing how Russia has been the “boy who cried wolf” about nuclear war threats. It’s clear that Moscow has often drawn “red lines” and threatened nuclear war… However, the situation in Eastern Europe appears more dire than ever before, with a Ukrainian offensive within Russian territory

🇷🇺 The number of times Russia has declared a “red line” and threatened nuclear war. There’s many more.

Life Tip: Threats only work when backed with ACTION.

Otherwise, they fall into the “Boy Who Cried Wolf” category. pic.twitter.com/MhaQksGVuF

— James Porrazzo (@JamesPorrazzo) August 17, 2024

Threats of nuclear conflict also come as nearly 200,000 Russians are being evacuated from the Kursk and Belgorod regions due to the Ukrainian military offensive. 

Back home, Americans are growing more anxious about who is actually running the US government. This comes as President Biden’s mental acuity slips, and VP Harris spends her time promoting communism price control policies on the campaign trail.

Authored by Michael Rectenwald via The Mises Institute,

As I argued in October of 2022, Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter (now X) would represent an important test case for the freedom of speech on social media against the globalist, woke, and totalitarian agenda for the censorship of “hate speech,” “misinformation,” and “disinformation.” In that essay, I also predicted that one of the main obstacles for free speech on X would be the Digital Services Act (DSA) of the European Union (EU), as administered by the European Commission (EC):

But the Digital Services Act threatens to universalize content moderation by social media and search engines, subjecting them to the EU’s stringent and anti-free-speech laws against “disinformation” and “hate speech,” which are not (yet) recognized legal categories in the United States. Given that Twitter [now X] will be forced to abide by EU-enforced content moderation for its EU users, it is possible that it will simply apply the Digital Services Act’s rules to all content…

Sure enough, Musk’s X has been threatened with fines of up to 6% of global revenue by the EC’s Thierry Breton for failure to comply with the EC’s DSA. And now Breton is attempting to bring down the hammer on X for its failure to comply with DSA imperatives, especially in connection with a prospective interview of Trump and revolts underway in the UK over immigration and immigrant violence.

In an X post on August 12, 2024, Breton publicized a letter he sent to Musk and X’s CEO, Linda Yaccarino, the weakest link in X’s free-speech chain. The letter lays out the extent to which the EC aims to go and the powers that it arrogates to itself to curtail free speech:

Thus, we see that the imperative to control speech on all “Very Large Online Platforms,” including search engines and social media sites, is globalist in character. The EC has no intention of abiding by the constitutional provisions that supposedly protect the speech of individuals or platform owners in any sovereign nation states. No matter the origin of the speech in question, the EC claims the right to regulate it.

In prose rife with the kind of doublespeak and gaslighting that we should expect from the globalists in the EC, the United Nations (UN), and the World Economic Forum (WEF), Breton continues:

This notably means ensuring, on one hand, that freedom of expression and of information, including media freedom and pluralism, are effectively protected and, on the other hand, that all proportionate and effective mitigation measures are put in place regarding the amplification of harmful content in connection with relevant events, including live streaming, which, if unaddressed, might increase the risk profile of X and generate detrimental effects on civic discourse and public security. This is important against the background of recent examples of public unrest brought about by the amplification of content that promotes hatred, disorder, incitement to violence, or certain instances of disinformation. (emphasis mine)

On the one hand, the EC’s Breton is ordering X to ensure “freedom of expression and of information, including media freedom and pluralism,” and on the other, the platform must mitigate (censor) “the amplification of harmful content in connection with relevant events.”

Of course, the EC will decide what constitutes “harmful content,” and the harmfulness of said content will be determined based on the EU’s dicta as to what harms its own (globalist) agenda. Never mind whether the content may advocate the reduction or elimination of harm to those subjects it deems to have no right to freedom of expression, like the native Britons revolting against the UK’s immigration policies, aligned as the latter policies are with the EU’s own immigration policies. The EC will decide what speech it condones, what freedom of expression is allowed, and what expression will be disallowed. The EC will decide what are the “relevant events,” “public unrest,” and thus what speech is permissible and what is not.

Redoubling its claims to authority over speech on X, Breton reminded Musk of ongoing proceedings against the platform:

As you know, formal proceedings are already ongoing against X under the DSA, notably in areas linked to the dissemination of illegal content and the effectiveness of the measures taken to combat disinformation. (emphasis mine)

This warning is given in connection of ongoing speech of which Breton and the EC/EU does not sanction, including speech exhibiting “hate and racism” and “debates and interviews in the context of elections,” the treatment of which could have, Breton warns, an impact on proceedings already underway against X:

As the relevant content is accessible to EU users and being amplified also in our jurisdiction, we cannot exclude potential spillovers in the EU. Therefore, we are monitoring the potential risks in the EU associated with the dissemination of content that may incite violence, hate and racism in conjunction with major political – or societal – events around the world, including debates and interviews in the context of elections.

Let me clarify that any negative effect of illegal content on X in the EU, which could be attributed to the ineffectiveness of the way in which X applies the relevant provisions of the DSA, may be relevant in the context of the ongoing proceedings and of the overall assessment of X’s compliance with EU law. This is in line with what has already been done in the recent past, for example in relation to the repercussions and amplification of terrorist content or content that incites violence, hate and racism in the EU, such as in the context of the recent riots in the United Kingdom.

l therefore urge you to promptly ensure the effectiveness of your systems and to report measures taken to my team. (emphasis mine)

Thus, the supposed “richest man in the world” is to report on his censorship mitigation efforts regarding permissible free expression to the Breton’s EU “team.”

Musk’s X is likewise vulnerable to punishment by this supra-statist regime.

The arrogance of the supra-statist, globalist, and woke regime apparently knows no bounds. As if in the U.S., national efforts to curtail and control speech were not already draconian enough, the EC/EU is upping the ante on censorship. These efforts will have dramatic effects on the future of free speech, including speech regarding pandemics, the integrity of elections, “antisemitism,” the institution of freedom-crushing “climate change” mitigation efforts, civil unrest in response to all the above, and more.

The Democrats have been instituting a propaganda campaign to hide or deny the effects of inflation ever since Joe Biden took office in 2021.  At first, they claimed there was no inflation threat.  Then they claimed inflation was “transitory.”  When the CPI hit 40 year highs they were forced to admit that inflation was an issue, but refused to admit the true cause (helicopter money from the Federal Reserve to fund various stimulus programs the US cannot afford).  Instead, Biden and Harris argued that the business world was to blame and high prices were a product of “price gouging.”   

The establishment media has been running with this narrative for years even though it has been thoroughly debunked.  Retail prices have risen in direct correlation to the increases in production costs.  As prices in raw materials and manufacturing rise, the prices on the shelf rise.  And, as too many dollars chase too few goods the manufacturing sector struggles to keep up with labor demands.  More labor with higher wages and a strained supply mean, again, higher prices.

Using producers as a scapegoat for economic failure is a time-honored tradition of socialist governments that refuse to take responsibility for their own failures.  It is also a way for politicians to pretend like they’re fixing the problem; temporarily treating the symptoms but never actually dealing with the source of the illness (because they are the source). 

Here’s your “price gouging” narrative: average costs paid by businesses have risen just as much as costs charged to consumers – if businesses are being “greedy,” they’re doing it all wrong… pic.twitter.com/ALiw72MXSf

— E.J. Antoni, Ph.D. (@RealEJAntoni) August 14, 2024

Rising costs were a top challenge for manufacturers in 2023 and this year looks to be no different.   Inflation caused prices to spike not only for materials, but wages and energy and the problem is expected to persist well into 2025.  Industry reports also suggest that declines in consumer demand have combined with inflation in prices, putting a strain on profits and the supply chain. 

As demand falters and costs increase manufacturers have to reduce supply.  As supply declines, either shelves will be empty or prices will climb even higher on the black market.

The Kamala Harris campaign recently released their economic policy plan to solve the ongoing stagflationary crisis, and it’s not surprising that Harris intends to continue the very same strategies that caused the problem in the first place.  She intends to print even more money to create even more handouts in order to bribe low-information voters.  Analysts are calling her plan an attempt to institute communist economic restrictions and upend what’s left of the free market.  This is true, but what does this mean in terms of consequences?

Beyond causing the death of what’s left of the free market in the US, the bigger threat is the immediate damage that price controls will cause to the supply chain.  With already thin profit margins for manufacturers and rising labor costs there is little room to maneuver.  Price controls would put a low ceiling on revenues and without profit incentives, there is no reason for companies to continue producing.  They will slow production of goods or shut down completely until better market conditions return.

It’s interesting to note that both the World Bank and even the Federal Reserve have recently warned about the dangers of price controls – Those guys are corrupt, but they aren’t crazy like Kamala.  The last time the US instituted price controls was during the early-1970s during the onset of the last stagflation crisis.  This was after the Nixon-era removal of the Dollar from the gold standard.  It was an unmitigated disaster.

On Aug. 15, 1971, in a nationally televised address, Nixon announced, “I am today ordering a freeze on all prices and wages throughout the United States.”  After a 90-day freeze, increases would have to be approved by a “Pay Board” and a “Price Commission,” with an eye toward eventually lifting controls.  This move was initially popular and helped win Nixon a second term in office. 

However, by 1973 and the advent of the OPEC Oil Embargo it had become clear that price controls did not work. As the New York Times noted in June of 1973:

“Housewives searching their supermarket shelves this coming week will find most of what they want still there. But widening circle of food processors and retailers are caught in a profit squeeze resulting from the price freeze, and this is beginning to curtail production of some foods…It could lead to shortages of many items in the next month.

Every echelon of the food industry, from farmers to retailers are criticizing the ceilings imposed on meat in March and on all other items on June 13. Their unhappiness about the ceiling has contributed to recent warnings of shortages.”

In June 1973, Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw explain in The Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy:

“Ranchers stopped shipping their cattle to the market, farmers drowned their chickens, and consumers emptied the shelves of supermarkets…”

The government is in no position to police prices.  These controls will only cause more damage in the long run and Kamala Harris and her team of Biden advisors are not intelligent enough to deal with the problem anyway.  

Via SchiffGold.com,

A nuclear tragedy could be “dangerously close,” according to the UN’s top nuclear watchdog. 

“Let me put it plainly–two years of war are weighing heavily on nuclear safety at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant,” said Rafael Mariana Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

“…Reckless attacks must cease immediately.”

Zaporizhzhia is a small town at the edge of Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine, home to Europe’s largest nuclear plant of the same name. The plant once employed 11,000 workers and provided power to seven countries, but since coming under Russian control, five of its six reactors have remained in cold shutdown. Only one remains partly operational, supplying power to the plant and nearby town.

Many locals and Ukrainian plant workers allege abuse, unsafe working conditions, and even torture by Russian authorities, all of which has caused mounting stress and suffering while leaving the plant vulnerable to human error.

“Now they take people directly from the nuclear plant, say that someone betrayed them, and throw them into basements,” said Dmytro Orlov, mayor of nearby Enerhodar, who finally fled the city. He claimed Russian overseers forced locals to work without pay, food, or sleep.

“It’s simply unimaginable,” Orlov added.

Throughout the war, both sides have used the plant as leverage, citing the risks local attacks pose to the security of nuclear materials inside the plant. The plant drew widespread international attention after a series of kamikaze drone strikes in April, which evoked fears of a Chernobyl-esque disaster that could spread far beyond Ukrainian borders.

“We cannot sit by and watch as the final weight tips the finely balanced scale,” the IAEA’s Grossi warned.

Concerns of a nuclear disaster are back in the spotlight this week, as Russia and Ukraine spat over which side caused a fire that sent black smoke and flames curling from a cooling tower.

“We are waiting for the reaction of the world, we are waiting for the reaction of the IAEA,” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky announced in a video post.

“Russia must be held responsible for this.”

Russian representatives denied involvement in the fire and turned the accusations back on Ukraine, claiming the conflagration was caused by Ukrainian attacks on a nearby city and that it was an act of “nuclear terror.”

Damage to the tower from this latest attack reportedly poses no radiation hazard to the plant or to the surrounding region, though IAEA officials have requested entry to the premises to inspect the wreckage and ensure safety from any possible fallout.

Meanwhile, Ukraine is back on the offensive, carrying the war that has been fought almost entirely on Ukrainian soil straight to their enemy’s front door. Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to “kick the enemy out” of its new position in Russian territory, sparking fears of a dramatic retaliation.

“What kind of negotiations can we even talk about with people who indiscriminately strike at civilians, at civilian infrastructure, or try to create threats to nuclear power facilities?” Putin complained following the Ukrainian incursion.

“What can we even talk about with them?”

The situation between the two countries and their allies remains highly volatile, posing safety and economic hazards that could echo across the globe. 

This won’t be the first time Russia has used energy shutoffs to force capitulation–just ask the Europeans who suffered and died during the 2023 heat wave, which was exacerbated by Russian-backed energy shortages–but it’s one of the first times in recent memory that nuclear material has been directly in the strategic crosshairs.

• Best-case scenario: Prices will continue to rise in the wake of a cold war waged via sanctions, embargoes, and harmful economic policies.

• Worst-case scenario: More countries are forced to enter the war.

Either option could be bad news for non-physical investments, which can be quickly swallowed up by fluctuations in an agitated market.

In a wry quip from Slovenia’s UN Security Council delegate: “Playing with fire is unadvisable–playing with nuclear fuel rods, even less so.”

The ‘Great Replacement’ comes to Ireland?  Public concerns surrounding government supported open immigration plans in the UK have been consistently treated as “xenophobic” and “overblown” by the media and authorities alike.  The typical M.O. of politicians has been to ignore all scrutiny and attack anyone that dares to question the agenda. 

Reports that migrant relocation programs were going to flood rural Irish locations with foreign elements raised eyebrows (and raised questions) last month as to the purpose of transplanting the third-world into outlying villages in the UK.  These same villages have been demographically unchanged for centuries.  

The theory, which holds considerable validity, is that western countries are being destabilized from within by corrupt progressive leaders with the intent to upend traditional western society and replace it with a self-devouring multicultural soup that is easier to convert to globalism.  Rural areas of the west are commonly viewed as safe havens away from the corrosive politics of woke socialism, and the targeting of these places seems to verify everyone’s worst fears about open borders.  

This brings us to the tiny hamlet of Tipperary in Ireland (population 165), where the Gardaí assisted Department of Integration had used a manor property called the Dundrum House Hotel to bring hundreds of Ukrainian refugees into the country.  Locals noted they had few problems with the Ukrainians because they seemed to easily integrate into the already existing community.  However, now that the government has their foot in the door of the village, they have decided to move the Ukrainians out and replace them with third-world migrants with non-western value systems.

Because of numerous examples of rampant criminality and violence (from rape gangs to mass stabbings) brought by such migrants to major cities throughout Europe and the UK, locals worry that same ideology of dominance and exploitation will now take over their once quiet corner of Ireland.  The fact that around 80% of these migrants are single military age men gives little comfort to the residents.  

Protests have erupted in Tipperary after it was revealed that at least 265 migrants would be relocated there, greatly outnumbering the indigenous population. 

📍Dundrum, Tipperary.

This tiny Irish village of 200 people was forcibly planted this morning. 280 ‘asylum seekers’ are to be housed in this hotel, replacing the local population overnight.

Ireland is ground zero for population replacement. pic.twitter.com/L4x1x7QMbV

— MichaeloKeeffe (@Mick_O_Keeffe) August 13, 2024

Other more discreet and suspicious migrant compounds have been cited in rural areas of Ireland, protected by government security and housing only military age males from predominantly third-world and Islamic countries.  The presence of these compounds reads more like a covert invasion rather than an attempt at integration.

Something very sinister is happening in Ireland.

Thousands of strange foreign men are being planted all around the country in sites which resemble military camps.

Locals are living in fear as masked foreign men patrol rural Ireland. pic.twitter.com/54zdz6UUkD

— MichaeloKeeffe (@Mick_O_Keeffe) August 13, 2024

Keep in mind that a common argument made by UK officials is that these migrants are “needed” in order to fill gaps in the service sector labor market.  Yet, rural regions like these have no demand for such labor because they rely predominantly on tourism.  Why are these foreign men being sent to these places? 

Locals report that when concerns are raised by the public the government will assert that only women and children and families will be transplanted to these centers, and most of them will be Ukrainians.  But when the media cameras are gone and the protests die down, military age males from Africa and the Middle East are quietly dumped into the community by the hundreds (and strangely, many men from Caucusus nation of Georgia).

With a majority of UK citizens (69%) opposed to open immigration according to polls and riots erupting after migrant attacks, UK governments have doubled down on “diversity” and are refusing to take public opposition seriously.  When patriot protests are organized, progressive NGOs with extensive resources bus in leftist activists to disrupt or silence them.  

The transplantation of young migrant men has also proven to be a buffer for the government, as gangs of foreigners patrol the streets and attempt to intimidate locals into silence.  The trade-off is clear:  Leftist officials give migrants access to the bounty of the west, and migrants protect those officials from popular uprisings in return. 

The last places for western citizens to go to for safety are rural enclaves, and even now those are being taken away.  

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Modernity.news,

As the crackdown on free speech accelerates, the UK government is set to ban people silently praying in their heads outside abortion clinics.

MPs voted for legislation last year that would ban silent prayer within ‘buffer zones’ 150 metres around the location of a clinic or hospital providing abortion services.

However, this has not come come into force and guidance was subsequently published allowing silent prayer within ‘safe access zones’ where activists would be able to hand out leaflets and engage in conversations with women considering abortions.

The guidance stated that, “Silent prayer, being the engagement of the mind and thought in prayer towards God, is protected as an absolute right under the Human Rights Act 1998 and should not, on its own, be considered to be an offence under any circumstances.”

The issue shot to public attention in March 2023 when campaigner Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was arrested by police for silently praying in front of a British Pregnancy Advisory Services clinic that was subject to a ‘buffer zone’ order.

🚨BREAKING: Isabel has been arrested, AGAIN, for THINKING.

MPs vote TOMORROW on banning silent prayer near all abortion facilities in🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿&🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

“You’ve said you’re engaging in prayer, which is the offense.”
“Silent prayer.”
“You were still engaging in prayer, which is the offense.” pic.twitter.com/AId3OguiXz

— ADF UK (@ADF_UK) March 6, 2023

Vaughan-Spruce’s arrest drew international condemnation and was denounced by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.

West Midlands Police later released her without charge and were forced to issue an apology after Vaughan-Spruce complained that she had been arrested for a “thought crime”.

However, such rights are set to be trampled completely as the new Labour government pushes to scrap the guidance and completely outlaw silent protest near abortion clinics, effectively criminalizing anyone who stands outside one and engages in ‘wrongthink’.

The Telegraph reports, “That ministers will now be reviewing this guidance. Pro-choice campaigners hope the review will result in both silent prayer and the handing out of leaflets being limited.”

“Home Office ‘considering banning silent prayer outside abortion clinics'”

Free speech is under threat in Labour Britain, and so too, it seems, is free non-speech. https://t.co/jVHuEXuOii

— David Frost (@DavidGHFrost) August 16, 2024

Dame Diana Johnson, the new policing minister, stated, “We specifically voted against proposals to allow silent prayer and consensual communication in safe access zones.”

“I notice that the Home Office has produced guidance which includes those measures being allowed.”

“I just wondered why you would do that when Parliament had been very clear that that was not the will of Parliament,” she added.

As we document in the video below, Brits are now being arrested and imprisoned for posts on social media which contain “anti-establishment rhetoric” as the purge intensifies following the recent anti-mass migration riots.

*  *  *

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

In July, Ukraine avoided defaulting on $20 billion in loans by reaching a preliminary agreement with private creditors.

Given the financial burden of war, the country suspended interest payments on international debt over the last two years, which was set to expire on August 1, 2024.

Without this new debt restructuring, this default would have ranked among the 10 largest in recent history. The last time Ukraine defaulted on its debt was in 2015, after Russia’s invasion of Crimea.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld, shows the largest sovereign debt defaults since 1983, based on data from Moody’s via Aswath Damodaran.

The Top 10 Sovereign Debt Defaults

Below, we show the biggest sovereign debt defaults between 1983 and 2022:

Greece’s $264.2 billion default in 2012 stands as the largest overall, unfolding when the country was mired in recession for the fifth consecutive year.

The country defaulted again just nine months later, making it the fourth-largest ever. Leading up to the crash, Greece ran significant deficits despite being one of the fastest-growing countries in Europe. Furthermore, in 2009, the newly elected prime minister revealed that the country was $410 billion in debt—substantially more than previous estimates.

With the second-highest default recorded, Argentina failed to repay interest on $82.3 billion in foreign debt in 2001. Like Greece, it is a repeat offender, defaulting numerous times since independence in 1816. Today, Argentina is the largest debtor to the International Monetary Fund, despite being Latin America’s third-largest economy.

Following next in line is Russia’s 1998 default on $72.7 billion in loans, coinciding with a currency crisis that erased more than two-thirds of the ruble’s value in a matter of weeks. That year, several other countries including Venezuela, Pakistan, and Ukraine defaulted on their debts after the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 spurred instability in global financial markets.

Just as 1998 saw a wave of defaults, 2020 was a year marked by major debt upheavals. Due to the pandemic and collapsing oil prices, it was a record year for sovereign defaults, reaching seven in total. Among these, Lebanon, Ecuador, and Argentina saw the largest defaults amid deepening fiscal pressures.

Authored by Matt McGregor via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Geologists may have solved the mystery of the origin of the Altar Stone central to the ancient monument of Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England.

The Altar Stone was long believed to have traveled 150 miles from Preseli Hills in Southwest Wales with the other megaliths until later work discounted that theory.

According to new research published in the scientific journal Nature, the 6-ton Altar Stone may have taken a longer journey of 600 miles from Northern Scotland.

“The difficulty of long-distance overland transport of such massive cargo from Scotland, navigating topographic barriers, suggests that it was transported by sea,” the study said. “Such routing demonstrates a high level of societal organization with intra-Britain transport during the Neolithic period.”

According to the study, ancient Britons began construction of Stonehenge as early as 3000 B.C. and continued for two millennia.

Stonehenge was constructed with sarsen stones and bluestones—or rock “considered exotic to the local area,” the study said.

The Altar Stone, the study said, is the largest of the bluestones in the ancient monument.

Stonehenge’s Origin

Nick Howe, host of Nature’s “Nature Podcast,” said the Altar Stone has long perplexed geologists.

“Despite its name, it’s unclear whether it was actually used as an altar,” he said. “And while it now lies flat, with another stone fallen on top of it, it may have once stood upright.”

Because it’s the largest of the stones and central to the structure, researchers have acknowledged its importance, Mr. Howe said.

Ten thousand years ago, he said, Stonehenge was marked not with stones but with wooden posts, which suggested that the site had significance for the ancient Britons.

“Then, around 6,000 years ago, a round ditch was constructed, the first signs of the familiar circular structure,” he said. “It’s around this time that it’s thought that a set of stones, known as the bluestones, arrived at Stonehenge from the Preseli Hills in Wales, a journey of some 150 miles.”

Hundreds of years later, the over 20-foot sarsen stones were transported to the site and raised to create what is known as Stonehenge today.

“It’s thought that these massive slabs came from quite close by, maybe only 15 miles away,” Mr. Howe said.

Despite competing theories suggesting the Altar Stone arrived with either the sarsen or the bluestones, researchers have never reached a definitive conclusion, Mr. Howe said.

“Last year a detailed analysis ruled out a Welsh origin for the Altar Stone, so, until now, its origin has remained a mystery,” Mr. Howe said.

‘Unique Fingerprint’

The study’s co-author, geologist Richard Bevins at Aberystwyth University in Aberystwyth, Wales, wasn’t allowed to use samples from the Altar Stone because it’s a protected site.

Instead, he used a sample from the rock in the 19th century and sent it to Anthony Clarke, a PhD student at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia, where he had the technology to analyze the sample “grain-by-grain.”

“From that chemistry, we could look up the ages and compare them with other source regions in the UK,” he said.

Using this analysis, he then set about finding a match for the source of the Altar Stone.

Though it’s a small island, Britain has a complicated geology, Mr. Clarke said.

Mr. Clarke was able to determine the “unique fingerprint” of the Altar Stone and compare it with other sedimentary basins, eventually finding a match in the Arcadian Basin of Northeast Scotland.

Mr. Clarke told Mr. Howe that he intends to conduct further research to find the exact location of Northeast Scotland where the Altar Stone was taken, information which may help illustrate a relationship between the two distant regions.

“One thing is for sure, though,” Mr. Howe said. “This won’t be the end of the mysteries that Stonehenge holds.”

Authored by Kit Knightly via Off-Guardian.org,

In the wake of the Southport attack and ensuing riots, we wrote that the agenda had become clear – it was about attacking free speech.

Little did we suspect how quickly they would move, and how brazenly authoritarian they would become, culminating in quite literal show trials for facebook posts:

All while the so-called “liberals” are applauding and spouting phrases they don’t realise they’ve been hypnotised into believing through endless repetition.

“Tolerating intolerance just leads to more intolerance in the end.”

“Free speech doesn’t mean freedom from consequences”

“It was never an absolute right”

If it wasn’t obvious from the outset, it’s quite clear now that this entire situation has been a contrivance.

As it turns out it was a masterfully played hand that has perfectly set up the template for other governments who may want to crackdown on free expression in the future.

1. Violent Incident – A terrorist attack, bomb threat, violent murder or some such hits the headlines. The incident can be real or staged, it makes no difference.

2. Push “Misinformation” – Publish an intentionally  falsifiable narrative of the above via anonymous accounts or non-mainstream sources, and use bots and shills to spread this “fake news”.

3. Foment violence – Again using sock puppets and your bought-and-paid-for “alternative voices”, encourage disorder. Use undercover agents on the ground to direct and gradually inflame this situation until it becomes violent.

4. Debunk “Misinformation” – Release the “real story” of the inciting incident, contradicting the initial “misinformation” you deliberately seeded (see #2).

5. Blame Social Media – Through your controlled media, broadcast  the idea that social media “amplified” the original  “misinformation” (that you planted) and it is therefore to blame for the violence.

6. Arrests – Begin arresting people for online comments (again, these can be real or fake, it makes no difference), but ensure the comments are unpleasant or stupid enough most people won’t defend them.

7. Show trials and sentencing – Sentence people to prison for posting jokes and opinions on social media. Whether this is performed or actual, the desired effect will be the same.

8. Legislation – Push through new legislation on hate speech etc. (or, in the UK’s case prepare to “revisit” legislation passed last year).

9. Enjoy your precedent – Bathe in the adoration of people who should know better, enjoy your precedent and be ready to re-use it whenever you want.

That’s the base plan.

You can tweak it to add specifics to suit your agenda, for example, today in the UK they are trying rehabilitate the reputation of the police, attempting to rebrand them as “those brave boys who faced down the far-right”, rather then “those tools of the state who locked us down for no reason”.

But the great thing about this template is it can be adapted for any situation, all you need to do is plan the attack and riots accordingly.

Right now the UK has a new “Labour” government, eager to prove its “leftist” bona fides, so the stoked unrest was anti-immigration protests, allowing for a clamp down on the “far-right”.

Next time, in the US, maybe a cop allegedly shoots a black suspect who is reportedly unarmed, sparking BLM riots – but oh no, it turns out the cop was black too and the suspect WAS armed, “leaked” CCTV proves it.

Cue arrests of “far-left” BLM supporters calling for attacks on police or tweeting “All Cops Are Bastards” or anyone who spread the “misinformation” that the suspect was unarmed.

…you get the idea.

The Ukrainian government is still proclaiming that its forces are making progress into the southern Russian oblast of Kursk, while the Kremlin has at the same time said its troops destroyed an entire reconnaissance and sabotage group in western Kursk on Friday.

Regardless of which side’s narrative of events are more accurate amid the fog of war, the biggest end of week development has involved the destruction of a key Russian bridge on Friday.

The pro-opposition Amsterdam-based Moscow Times has identified that “The bridge, which spanned the Seym River near the town of Glushkovo, was partially damaged earlier in the day in an attack that killed two volunteer workers from the All-Russia People’s Front, pro-war bloggers said.”

“Later on Friday, the bridge collapsed after being struck by a U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket, the Kremlin-aligned Mash Telegram news channel reported, publishing images of the destroyed structure,” the report continued. This is a reference to the US Army’s M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System which can be outfitted with either mid-range or long-range missiles.

Aerial images and videos have been circulating throughout the day, and Acting Kursk region governor Alexei Smirnov has since confirmed that the bridge collapsed.

The bridge was nearly seven miles north of the Ukrainian border, and was used as a key supply and logistics route for Russian forces fighting off the cross-border incursion.

The specific targeting of the bridge may be a move by Ukraine to solidify control of the Glushkovsky district, which leaves the protection of the Seym River a significant geographical barrier for Russian troops.

If it is indeed true that a U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket struck and destroyed the bridge, this would mark a huge turning point of the conflict, where Ukraine troops are on Russian soil using American heavy rocket systems to take out major infrastructure.

Ukraine’s air force boasted that it took out the bridge…

Ukraine’s Air Force Commander Lieutenant General Mykola Oleschuk claims responsibility for the destruction of a bridge in Russia’s Kursk region today. Video via his Telegram channel. “Aviation of the Air Force takes an active part in combat operations in the Kursk direction.… pic.twitter.com/K28WsC56Ml

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) August 16, 2024

RIA additionally reported a Russian security official as saying additionally on Friday, “Samples of small arms manufactured by the United States and Sweden have been seized at the liquidation site of a Ukrainian sabotage group near the village of Kremyanoe in the Kursk region.”

So it is very clear by now that at least on some level, Western-supplied arms are having a central role in Ukrainian invasion of Russia’s southern oblasts.